


Frostbitten

by GeckoGirl89



Category: Friends (TV)
Genre: Canon Dialogue, Episode: s08e16 The One Where Joey Tells Rachel, Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts, Extended Metaphors, F/M, Ficlet, Heartbreak, Heavy Angst, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-18
Updated: 2017-02-18
Packaged: 2018-09-25 06:29:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9807284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GeckoGirl89/pseuds/GeckoGirl89
Summary: Joey felt overly warm with the sweater he was wearing to cover up his inappropriate t-shirt, but now he feels a chill start to creep through him. This wasn't the reaction he had been hoping for.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt "Any, Any, Frozen" on fic_promptly: https://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/458635.html?thread=14226571#cmt14226571

 

Rachel freezes when Joey says the words, the slight raise of her eyebrows the only indication that she heard him. "I think I'm falling in love with you."

"What?"

Joey screws up the courage to say it again. It's easier the second time.

Rachel looks incredibly confused, and then she glances behind her. As if Joey could be talking to someone else. Joey felt overly warm with the sweater he was wearing to cover up his inappropriate t-shirt, but now he feels a chill start to creep through him. This wasn't the reaction he had been hoping for.

"Who you talking to, Joe?" Before he can answer, Rachel speaks. "Oh, you're kidding. Oh, it's a joke!" She laughs with relief and a hint of desperation. "Oh, that's funny. It's funny. I don't get it."

Joey feels like that time he went ice skating as a kid and he hit a patch of weak ice. He fell into the frigid water and clung fearfully to the edge of the ice until his dad could pull him out. The terror and the coldness are remarkably similar.

His face, which had been slightly smiling when he told Rachel how he felt, screws up in a sad expression, and he shakes his head.

Rachel seems to be frozen too, if her abortive attempts to form questions are any indication. Finally she manages to ask him how and when it happened.

"Does it really matter?" Joey asks. The only thing that matters is how Rachel feels about him, and, considering her initial reaction, Joey isn't optimistic.

Rachel says it's too hot in the restaurant, but she's shuddering as if she's cold. Joey wishes he could give her his sweater, but any gesture of care taking would seem presumptuous now. He feels so guilty that he's the one who did this to her, who put that sorrowful expression on her face.

Joey tells Rachel he can take as much time as she needs, but he quickly backtracks. As awful as he feels for pressuring her, he needs to know her response. He feels like he's drowning, icy water rushing into his lungs.

And then it comes. "Joey, I love you so much, but..." That "but" is the separation between happiness and despair, between freezing from the cold or enjoying a warm summer day.

Joey attempts to leave. He just wants to go home, cuddle Hugsy, and wrap himself in a million blankets until he doesn't feel like a popsicle anymore. But Rachel starts to cry, and Joey realizes that she's drowning too.

That actually does bring forth the tears he's been holding back. Joey has always hated it when Rachel cried, before he knew he loved her. Joey reassures Rachel that he won't stop being her friend and that she doesn't need to be sorry for not feeling the same way he does. It's not like people can help that kind of thing. If they could, Joey would have avoided falling in love with Rachel.

The hugs they share make him feel warmer and colder at the same time. He loves hugging Rachel, but now he knows that the embrace doesn't mean to her what it does to him. She's being comforted right now, but she will probably want to let go at some point. Joey won't.

His chest hurts the same way it does after running around on a cold, windy day. He feels frostbitten and barely able to keep breathing. And now he's aware that nothing will chase away the cold.

 


End file.
